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Frayed Ribbon
Snarky comment: This application uses the coolest new command pattern from Microsoft: the Ribbon! File, Edit, View, ...hey, wait a minute. You're not fooling anyone—that's just a menu disguised as a Ribbon. My suggestion: leave the Ribbon design to the professionals.
What's wrong here?
The Ribbon in this application is nothing more than a menu presented as tabs. This goes against everything Microsoft has published and evangelized about the use and design of the Ribbon pattern. The whole point of the Ribbon is to expose program functionality to users for easier access and with fewer clicks. Quoting Microsoft, "While you might simply refactor a traditional menu bar and toolbar design of an existing program to a Ribbon format, doing so misses most of the value of using a Ribbon. Instead of refactoring your existing commands, it's better to redesign completely how commands are performed in your program." For further information (hint, hint), Microsoft has extensive guidance on Ribbon design in the MSDN library.
Source: Universal Remote MX-6000 Editor Software
comments (2)
My2Cents: I like this approach because it favors the use of icons over words...
Don't get me wrong--I love the ribbon. I think the ribbon is a great way of exposing features that might otherwise go unnoticed if buried in menus. But to do that--to make it easier for people--a ribbon should not just be a reimplementation of a menu. It needs to be reorganized. Otherwise, you're just using the ribbon so that you can say you are instead of adding any real UX value.
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